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by Osman Sezgi, June, 1995 (sezgi@bilkent.edu.tr)
The purpose of this paper is to analyse structures of some Yesilcam melodramas that reflect the society to itself. However, the aim of this study is neither to establish a historical framework of Turkish cinema, nor to analyse structures of all types of Turkish melodramas. This study intends to examine the melodramas that are centred around the nuclear family and children heroes/heroines. Patriarchal ideology and its representations are suggested as an area of this investigation. Therefore, this study also intends to investigate cultural, ideological and psychological relationships between melodrama and its audience.
In The New Grolier Webster International Dictionary, melodrama (Gr. melos, a song, and drama, drama) is defined as "an extravagantly sentimental or emotionally exaggerated drama or play; formerly, a romantic play interspersed with music". Thomas Elsaesser (1987) also agrees that melodrama is a kind of dramatic story in which the emotional effects are expressed by using musical and symbolic elements. Many writers associated melodrama with the bourgeois class. According to Christine Gledhill (1987: 14) melodrama was invented by bourgeois class that was struggling for ascendancy over an aristocracy. During the eighteenth century, the bourgeois also tried to take cultural hegemony from the aristocracy, thus the aesthetic of tragedy was altered. This aesthetic transmutation created a new genre called melodrama. Gledhill has written that "Shakespearean tragedies, popular fiction, Romantic poetry and operatic libretti, newspapers and topical events, police journals and penny dreadful, paintings and etchings, popular songs and street ballads all provided genre of melodrama" (1987: 18).
In Hollywood, the genre of melodrama gained a new life. According to Gledhill (1987), American culture has different socio-political conditions, because there was not any class struggle between aristocracy and bourgeois. Therefore, American transformation of melodrama, first dismantled "the class opposition of European melodrama" (Gledhill, 1987: 24). On the other hand, class oppositions were transformed into rural/urban and rich/poor oppositions. Hollywood melodrama consumes the culture of the middle class American society. Iconography and family experience of this society are emphasised in melodramas. In this respect, the middle-class home and objects surround heroes/heroines to symbolise their social conditions. Elsaesser claims "Melodrama is iconographically fixed by the claustrophobic atmosphere of the bourgeois home and/or the small-town setting" (1987: 62). Therefore, melodrama might be classified as an aesthetization of bourgeois ideology (Rodowick, 1987: 268). Moreover, in this ideology, melodrama also functions as "a safety valve for ideological contradictions centred on sex and the family" (Mulvey, 1987: 75). On the other hand, some writers claim that, melodrama has also some anti-ideological functions, because it may produce contradictions for the ideology. As Michael Booth stated (qtd. in Gledhill, 1987: 14) "[Although] Melodrama itself was essentially entertainment for the industrial working class...its basic energy was proletarian".
According to Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (1987), the main function of the melodramatic narrative is the maintenance of patriarchal ideology. He states that what melodrama enacts is the patriarchal family structures where sexual identity is acquired. Thus, the melodramatic narrative is especially organised around the Father (the phallus or the symbolic father that makes the Law) that is necessary for the survival and reproduction of family. In this system, as Nowell-Smith asserts, "The son has to become like his father in order to take over his property and his place within the community" (1987: 71). Moreover, Mulvey (1987) defines melodramatic narratives in relation to sexual difference that cause problems in a patriarchal family culture. Masculine and feminine spheres are compromised to survive the family culture. Thus, Mulvey states that the ideological function of melodrama is the representation of patriarchal contradictions between men and women, in an aesthetic form. However, Hollywood melodrama does not only represent relationships between men and women, but also enacts children in relation to their parents. Gender roles of children are acquired in the family and their sexual identities depend upon their parents. Linda Williams defines relationships between children and parents as "The boy separates from his mother to identify with his father and take on a masculine identity of greater autonomy. The girl on the other hand, takes on her identity as a woman in a positive process of becoming like, not different than, her mother" (1987: 306).
As is stated above, melodrama consumes and represents the social relations of the society to itself. According to Gledhill, "a film's fantasy is a reflection of its audience's fantasies" (1987: 11). In this respect, to analyse structures of Yesilcam melodramas, first the Turkish society and the construction of individuality in this system have to be investigated.
The Socio-economic structure of Turkish society has changed since 1923 and, this changing has gained acceleration with the partial liberation of economy since 1950. In order to adapt the Western capitalist system, the Turkish governmental policies inclined towards the industrialisation after 1960's. Because of industrialisation policies, a very strong immigration has started from rural areas. However, the industrialisation was not at the same rate of urbanisation in Turkey. According to Cahit Orhan Tutengil (qtd. in Guchan, 1992: 2), urbanisation in Turkey does not result from developments of industry, health, social services, communication, transportation, etc. On the contrary, this is a sick urbanisation that results from unsettled conditions of rural areas. That's why, the great many of immigrants were employed in marginal jobs outside industry, as peddlers, doorkeepers, servants or drivers. Gulseren Guchan (1992) asserts that these marginal societies have some special characters; they have settled in peripheries of urban areas, they haven't got any social insurance, and they lose their confidence in city. Thus they only rely on their families, and especially children are their guarantees for senility. Second, relatives and neighbours are trusted in urban areas. In other words, immigrants prefer to collaborate with their relatives or neighbours against difficulties of city life. Hopelessness and fatalism become a dominant value of new masses. Although immigrants do not lose their traditional cultural values, they also try to posses the values of the city life. As the result of these developments, new values are established. Therefore, 'Arabesk'(1) that is the synthesis of rural and urban cultures, is invented by immigrants in Turkey.
The characters of Yesilcam melodramas generally belong to the middle or lower-class immigrants. Although they have a local power in their families, they are suffering powerlessness within the society. Therefore their patriarchal rights are of central importance. As usual, the passive or impotent characters become protagonist of Yesilcam melodramas, too. In addition to their impairments, as Nowell-Smith states "In their struggle for the achievement of social and sexual demand, men may sometimes win through, women never" (1987: 72). Moreover, to acquire an identity in the society, moral and social order of a family is needed. According to Nilgun Abisel (1994), the family is sublimed in Yesilcam melodramas, and characters first rely on their families. Families are centred around the authoritarian but compassionate father figure. Children may occupy his place as a bread winner, in the absence of father. However, their gender roles that are established by the family, are never changed.
This part of the study examines melodramas that are centred around the children heroes/heroines. I lean on especially two films to develop and support may assertions: Yumurcak Koprualt› Cocugu /Brat The Guttersnipe (Turker Inanoglu, Erler Film, 1970) and Gulsah, Kucuk Anne/Gulsah, The Little Mother (Orhan Elmas, 1976). These melodramas are fundamentally concerned with the family triad. They represent the impotent father within the society, a domestic mother whose role is to subordinate herself to her husband and children, and traumatised children. Therefore, signification of the Oedipal scenario around the nuclear family is the main theme of these films. In this respect, these films designate the return of the repressed. In both films, fathers (Cuneyt Ark›n and Fikret Hakan) symbolise 'lumpens' who are employed as drivers. As usually they are suffering powerlessness within the society, thus they realise their masculine authority over their families. On the other hand, mothers (Filiz Akin and Hulya Kocyigit) represent their classical gender roles as women that consign them to the domestic sphere of home and family. They subordinate themselves to their families. For instance, in Gulsah Kucuk Anne, the mother, (Nurten/Hulya Kocyigit) advises her daughter, Gulsah that "Womankind must dedicate her life to her husband. We have to share their (males') pains...". Significantly, in these films, motherhood as woman's natural social role, is sublimed. The most important characters of these films are children (Yumurcak and Gulsah) and the films are centred around them. Traumatised children always play an important role in Turkish popular culture (remember the popularity of crying child posters). In his book Tarihten Guncellige/From History to Current Interest (1986: 265-269), Murat Belge claims that, people who have difficulty in showing their love to children are attracted by the image of traumatised children. According to him traumatised children attracts especially women who could not take enough care to their children and feel unhappy about their weakness (because of their gender, social position, education, or fate). Because of this reason, weeping children were naturally appealing to the spectator of Yesilcam melodramas.
Children protagonist, first of all, connotes purity, innocence, etc. They are especially represented as naughty fellows, but at the same time, they are cute and reasonable.. Moreover, children characters in these films have an ideological function, that is the representation of bourgeois ideology in an aesthetic form. From the very start, bourgeois class has been affiliated to particular institutions. One of them is the nuclear family. Therefore, the nuclear family must be protected on the grounds that the foundation of bourgeois states. That's why, kiddies who represent the bourgeois family, have to be protected by their families, society and state. In these films, for instance, when Yumurcak and Gulsah are left alone and defenceless, their neighbours and the state (that is symbolised by the police and the judge) take care of them. In this respect, these films provide an orientation for the lower-class immigrants. Spectators learn their suitable roles in urban areas. They have to learn that they must love their children and to weep for them, that money does not bring happiness so they do not hate rich but unhappy people anymore, that they do not necessarliy have to change their social status, that they have to subordinate themselves only to their families, neighbours and to collaborate with them against the difficulties of life. Because, only love has a power to transform people.
According to Nowell-Smith "Melodrama...often features women as a protagonist, and where the central figure is a man there is regularly an impairment of his 'masculinity'...characters can only live out the impairment ('castration') imposed by the law" (1987: 72). In our examples, fathers who are employed as drivers in both films, are shown as an impotent character. Therefore, they are castrated within the new social organisation in the urban area. The desire to attain a new social status is generally suppressed in these films. For instance, in Yumurcak Koprualti Cocugu, the father (Nihat/Cuneyt Arkin) decides to work at nights, in order to earn more money. He is, however, arrested because the police suspects that Nihat killed the owner of a night club. Therefore, he is punished for his desire to attain an upper social status. Also, in GulsahKucuk Anne, the father (Murat/Fikret Hakan) who wanted additional charge from his boss, will be accused of killing his employer later. Thus films remind male spectators who want to change their social position from one class to another, and to suppress their desires. Moreover, ideology of motherhood is conventionally sublimed, and the protection of the family is generally assigned to women. Mothers/women who do not trust her husbands are also punished in Yesilcam melodramas. In Yumurcak KÜpr Alt¦ éocu_u, the mother (Selma/Filiz Ak¦n) who suspected from her husband, will be blinded, while in GulsahKucuk Anne, the mother (Nurten/Hlya Ko›yi_it) has an accident as a cost of her doubt about her husband. The acquiring of gender identities in terms of Oedipal problems is also the key concept of Yesilcam melodramas that are centred around children protagonists. Gledhill states that in melodramas "This Oedipal construct links the child's perception of sexual difference as the woman's castration or lack..." (1987: 8). Yumurcak and Gulsah are good examples that represent the acquirement of gender roles and sexual difference in Yesilcam melodramas. In these films, the father regards his son as his double (in Yumurcak KÜpr Alt¦ éocu_u), whereas the mother produces her daughter as a woman or a mother (in GulsahKucuk Anne). Yumurcak (male child) achieves his identity while taking on a masculine identity of his father. In Freud's theory, "The boy must eliminate the 'feminine' in himself (because it implies castration) and identify with his father..." (Kaplan, 1987: 121). For instance, Yumurcak (male child) who identify with his father, represents his gender role such that he doesn't want to go the women's part of the Turkish bath, that he finds a girl friend, that he fights for a woman (like his father), that he rejects to cry, etc. Moreover, he replaces his father's place when the father is imprisoned. He works as a peddler and a street musician. On the other hand, Gulsah designates her feminine gender identity in relation with her mother. For instance, the mother (Nurten) instructs Gulsah, when she takes care to her (male) baby:
"Pay attention what I'm doing Gulsah. One day you will be a mother, too"
"How did you learn to do these things mother?"
"I learned from my mother. Girls are trained by their mothers, while boys are educated by their fathers..."
Later on in the film, Gulsah will try to suckle villains' baby who is kidnapped by Gulsah and her three male friends. "You are a men but I'm a woman. Thus, I know how to nurse a baby". However, she couldn't suckle the baby, then they decide to give the baby back to her mother. Gulsah says "Poor baby, she hasn't got a sin...Children does not punished because of their mothers' faults". This sentence reveals the repressed Oedipal complex of girls who remain angry with her mother because of her lack. Kaplan states that "In Freud's view, the girl, angry at her Mother for being castrated, for preventing libidinal activity, for preventing libidinal activity, for not suckling her long enough..." (1987: 122). Thus, Gulsah unconsciously wishes to punish the Mother who has also betrayed her with his father. For instance, in one scene, Gulsah says to her mother that "You smell mother. Let me sleep with". However, the Father (Murat/Fikret Hakan) does not accept her wish. Gulsah gets angry "But you always sleep with my mother...". When his father is imprisoned and her mother gets sick, Gulsah works as a street dancer to make money. This is also significant that it expresses the woman's position in Yesilcam melodramas. Castrated women are always impotent. For instance, Yumurcak helps his father to set a trap for the villains, but Gulsah could not (because of the sexual difference and gender roles of children). Mothers couldn't extricate their children from villains and troubles, whereas fathers save children, so they re-realise their masculine authority over their families.
Consequently, Yesilcam melodramas that are organised around the nuclear family and children protagonist, maintain the patriarchal ideology of Turkish society. The father figure is necessary for the survival and reproduction of the family that is an ideological state apparatus of bourgeois class. Gender roles of children are acquired in the nuclear family. In these films, the boy is identified with his father, while the girl can exist only in relation to her castrated mother. Moreover, mothers produce their daughters with mothering capacities the desire to mother. Therefore, the adaptation of the gender roles of children is acquired with respect to their relations with their parents.
Abisel, Nilgun. Turk Sinemasi Uzerine Yazilar. Ankara: Imge, 1994.
Akture, Zeynep and Benoit Junod (Eds.). Identity, Marginality, Space. Ankara: METU Press, 1992.
Belge, Murat. Tarihten Guncellige. Istanbul: Alan Yayincilik, 1986.
Doane, Mary Ann. "The Woman's Film: Possession and Address", in Home Is Where The Hearth Is. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.
Elsaesser, Thomas. "Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama", in Home Is Where The Hearth Is. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.
Elsaesser Thomas. "Desire Denied, Deferred or Squared? Screen. 29.3 (Summer, 1988): 106-115.
Fletcher, John. "Melodrama: An Introduction by John Fletcher". Screen 29.3 (Summer, 1988): 2-12.
Gledhill, Christine. "The Melodramatic Field: An Investigation". Home Is Where The Hearth Is. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.
Gulseren Guchan. Toplumsal Degisme ve Turk Sinemasi. Ankara: Imge, 1992.
Heath, Stephen. "On Screen, In Frame: Film and Ideology" in Popular Fiction: Technology, Ideology, Production, Reading. Ed. Tony Bennett. London: Routledge, 1990.
Kaplan, E. Ann. "Mothering, Feminism and Representation: The Maternal and the Woman's Film 1910-40".Home Is Where The Hearth Is. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.
Mulvey, Laura. "Notes on Sirk and Melodrama". Home Is Where The Hearth Is. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. "Minelli and Melodrama". Home Is Where The Hearth Is. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.
Rodowick, David N. "Madness, Authority and Ideology: The Domestic Melodrama of the 1950s". Home Is Where The Hearth Is. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.
Williams, Linda. "Something Else Beside a Mother: Stella Dallas and the Maternal Melodrama". Home Is Where The Hearth Is. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.
Yumurcak Koprualti Cocugu/ Brat, The Guttersnipe.
Director: Turker Inanoglu
Cast: Cuneyt Arkin (Nihat), Filiz Akin (Selma), Ilker Inanoglu (Yumurcak).
Date of Production: 1970.
Production Co: Erler Film
Gulsah Kucuk Anne/ Gulsah, The Little Mother.
Director: Orhan Elmas.
Cast: Fikret Hakan (Murat), Hulya Kocyigit (Nurten), Gulsah.
Date of Production: 1976.
1 Many writers argue that Arabesk is the reflection of the western notion of Kitsch. in Turkey. However, Arabesk is a cultural phenomenon and production of Turkish society. I think, Kitsch and Arabesk have different socio-economic structures. That's why, I prefer to use Arabesk instead of Kitsch. Fore more information about the subject, one is recommended to read Akture and Junod (Eds.), 1992: 81-91.
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